Bent spark plug electrode
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
There are only a couple of possibilities for a bent electrode. Most are not good. As mentioned already, the wrong plug. Another more terrible thought is the rod bearing is letting go...badly...therefore the piston has contacted the plug. Something has managed to find its way into the combustion chamber yet too large to go out through the exhaust valve. Maybe a valve itself has come apart. Regardless, you need to do a compression test on that cylinder and all of them. Make sure you are using the correct plugs. Get and use a boroscope camera to look in there. Hope and pray you haven't damaged the engine.
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 10,554
Likes: 33
From: Not on either liberal coast.
Hopefully, that's the cause and nothing worse! How many times has someone dropped a spark plug while doing the job and didn't bother to recheck the gap?
I've seen a handful come that way brand new in the wrapper as well. Those thin cardboard packages do little to protect the electrode.
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Instructor
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
From: Wichita Falls Texas
When I was a kid my dads truck ingested a loose nut from the choke plate on the carb. Bent the number 1 plug, spit it out the exhaust, went for another 100k. This was due to someone not tightening a screw...anyone work on it lately?
